Iran has released new photographs in which at least one of the recently captured U.S. sailors is crying, according to a series of the pictures posted on social media.

The pictures, as well as an accompanying video, were released by Iranian state-controlled news outlets and disseminated on Twitter by Iranian reporters early Wednesday.

The new photographs come on the heels of another set of pictures that showed Iranian military forces detaining the U.S. sailors at gun point and forcing them to place their hands upon their heads while kneeling on a ship.

If we had a Republican in office today, then those soldiers would still be there in Iranian prison, crying, waiting for a couple years while we amassed a huge invasion force on the border, then conducted a war costing trillions of dollars, hundreds of soldiers killed, and then a botched rescue operation resulting in all captives dying.

And I think we all agree that would be better than negotiating their release 20 hours later. Because Obama is bad, or whatever.

RWS

I still am ashamed of that botched rescue operation — and chagrinned that I served in the Democratic administration which directed it be done in accordance with good political principles.

Neither major party holds a monopoly on either honesty or wisdom.

Naturalism

What rescue operation? I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing. There was no rescue operation for these soldiers.

RWS

Ah, no, we aren’t talking about the same thing. These men and woman are sailors — not soldiers (no, not all who serve in the armed forces are the same). I thought that you referred to a botched attempt made thirty-some years ago, but you may be too young to remember that (and the only other recent attempts which I recall right now to rescue even one soldier were longer ago than that).

No matter, best forgotten — much as this incident already seems to have been.